Abstract

C'mon Ralph, You've Nothing to Lose

The article discusses the campaigning of Third Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader for the 2004 United States election. There are about six weeks left to run in this campaign, and Nader needs to finish off with a bang. When it comes to stopping people from being able to vote for Nader, Democrats are firing on all cylinders. Next will be battles over Nader's exclusion from the debates. If ever there was an opportunity for Nader to seize the hour, it is now. At home there has been a sharp escalation in anger and resistance to the Iraq war from the people press-ganged to fight it. In California an Army veteran represented by attorneys Michael Sorgen and Joshua Sondheimer, in association with the Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild, is bringing suit against the "stop loss" retention of up to 40,000 service members forced to serve beyond the expiration of their enlistment terms since the war in Iraq began. Here are opportunities for candidate Nader to remind people that on the number-one issue on the election agenda, between President George W. Bush and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry the electorate is offered no choice. As Robin Blackburn recently stressed in CounterPunch, Nader and running mate Peter Camejo have nothing to lose, so they should embrace every radical and progressive cause they can think of.